OATH OF ALLEGIANCEI hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Wedding Vows(Catholic) I, _____, take you, _____, to be my husband/wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor youall the days of my life.

Hi, my name is Rebecca and today we’re going to talk about grammar, about how to use the FUTURE TENSE in conversation. Now, many of you who are ADVANCED ESL STUDENTS (studenti di ESL English as a Second Language) may already know this or you may still be surprised to hear that there is a slight difference in how we can express things in the future, especially in conversation… all right?

So, what matters when we are talking about the future tense is whether the activity we are talking about is something PLANNED or something UNPLANNED.

What do I mean by that?

By PLANNED ACTIVITY IN THE FUTURE I mean something like… TRAVELLING ABROAD. If you are going to be flying abroad you will need to book your ticket, pack your suitcases and do a number of things to plan for that event. So that’s an example – TRAVELLING – of something that you need to plan in advance.

Another example of something planned in the future is an appointment to see the doctor. You will need to call him and make this appointment in order to go and see him in the future. All right? So, this an example of PLANNED. I’ll talk about UNPLANNED in a few moments.

Let’s start now with the two different ways in which you can talk about PLANNED ACTIVITIES IN THE FUTURE. One is by using the expression GOING TO. You simply say: “I’m going to” plus the verb. In this case: “I’m going to visit John on Saturday” all right? Or, “I’m going to meet Mary at five o’clock.”

This is a way to indicate that the action will happen a little bit later in the future. That “later” could be 5 minutes later, five hours later, five days later or five years later… it really doesn’t matter in English, as long as it’s in the future, and the future means any time after this present moment. OK?

The second way to speak about planned activities in the future is by using the PRESENT CONTINUOUS. Now I know you’re going to wonder why the PRESENT CONTINUOUS. Till now you’ve probably learned that the PRESENT CONTINUOUS (for example “I’m visiting”) indicates something that’s happening now or something that’s temporary. However, you can also use the PRESENT CONTINUOUS to talk about the future as long as you add some period of time in the future to indicate exactly when that activity will happen.

Let me give you an example. If we use the same example of “visiting John” here, with PRESENT CONTINUOUS, we will simply say “I’m visiting John on Sunday.” If I say “I’m visiting John” without saying “Sunday” then you simply are talking about RIGHT NOW, you’re talking about the present. But as soon as I say “Sunday” (and today is Friday, and Sunday is ahead in the future) then you know that I’m talking about the future. And this is the second way that I can talk about a PLANNED ACTIVITY in the future.

“I’m going to play tennis on Thursday” or “I’m playing tennis on Thursday”

Again, these are activities that we have planned in advance. All right?

Let’s go down to the second side which is for the UNPLANNED ACTIVITIES.

What do I mean by UNPLANNED ACTIVITY? It means something that you decide at this moment, spontaneously or because you have learned some information right now to do something in the future.

For example, suppose I’m speaking to Mary on the phone, and we’re talking, and then suddenly my boss enters the room and tells me that he needs to speak to me urgently. So I tell Mary: “Mary, I’ll call you back. I need to go and speak to my boss.” “I’ll call you back.”

“I’LL” is a contraction of “I WILL” and indicates an activity in the future. But in this case, I make that decision (to call Mary back) AT THIS VERY MOMENT. It was not something that I had planned in advance, it was something that happened AT THIS VERY MOMENT and because of that, I decided to do it. In that case, when we’re speaking, we use WILL. Of course when we’re speaking we usually speak a little more informally and so we use contractions such as: “I’ll call you back”, “We’ll see you later” and so on.

Now, it’s possible that you could use both this [PLANNED] and this [UNPLANNED] in one sentence. How?

Well, if somebody asks you what you are going to do at the weekend… there may be some things you planned to do (and you know for sure) and there may be other things which you’re not sure about, which may happen. These are certain [PLANNED], these are uncertain [UNPLANNED]. So you could say…

“Well, what am I doing this weekend? I’m going to visit my mother (this is planned), I’m going to have lunch with her, and then, maybe, I’ll go to a movie (= go to the cinema = BrEn) or maybe I’ll go home and study.”

So here you see, in the same example, how we have moved from something PLANNED to something UNPLANNED even in the same sentence. Again, this holds true when we’re talking about conversational English. Usually, when we’re talking about BUSINESS ENGLISH or about something that’s in writing, it’s a little more formal and therefore we don’t find GOING TO and PRESENT CONTINUOUS used for the FUTURE even when activities are PLANNED.

For example, if ABC Company announces that it’s going to have a new branch, or a new factory… it’s going to open a new factory in Japan, the announcement in the newspaper will usually read:

“ABS Company WILL OPEN a new factory in Japan in March.” NOT: “… is going to open” BUT: “… will open.”

Why? Simply because this is more formal, this is more business like.

And so we tend to use WILL when it’s more business like and more formal. And we tend to use WILL when we’re talking about something that’s in writing versus something in conversation.

If I was just telling you about this, I might tell you that ABC Company is going to open a new factory in Japan. But if you see it in writing, it will probably read the other way.

I like your blog! I'm a Middle School teacher and a new-born edublogger. I think technology can be of great help for learning English.Here is the link to my bloghttp://themachinegoeson.blogspot.com/Feel free to link to whatever you like. There are some glogsters I've made for my classes which can be useful for Middle School students. http://themachinegoeson.blogspot.com/search/label/GLOGSTER

Hi dear Daniela, Thanks a lot, I'm so glad you like "A little Brit."I've seen your own blog and I must say I really admire what you've been able to accomplish with your students. I'm sure it'll be a great source of inspiration for me as well!I've just written a post on "The machine goes on". Your fresh ideas and strategies to enrich and enhance vocabulary fascinate me!Keep in touch!nadia

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About Me

Welcome! My name is Nadia Zaramella, I live in the north-east of Italy and I teach English to kids aged 11-13. The general aim of my blogs is to offer practical tips and advice to enhance the learning of English as a foreign language. My blogs also keep track of the various activities and projects my classes undertake.